Third Coast Audio Library

Our vast and ever-growing collection contains thousands of carefully curated audio stories, episodes from Third Coast podcasts, educational sessions on craft from the best makers on the planet, and more.

We’ve also featured some incredible audio work beyond this audio library, in other ways and using other formats: don’t miss the 2021 Web Showcase, featuring a more in-depth look at the winners, judges and even a list of 40 finalists from the 2021 Third Coast/RHDF Competition.

Dreaming of Osama

Dreaming of Osama explores the ever-moving boundaries of the "war on terror" and its influence on the collective unconscious. Osama Bin Laden has a way of lying low -- then, just as the public begins to forget about him, he makes an unexpected reappearance.

Loose Tongues

Narrative deceptions, perverse fictions, audio portraiture: this conversation between feature-makers Natalie Kestecher and Susan Stone explores the interplay of story, character, and music, as well as the delights of creative ambiguity and communication in Kestecher's luminous, protean work.

  • 2003
  • 58:52

The Runway

Mary Going runs Saint Harridan, a company that makes custom suits catering to butch women and trans men. Her fans are enthusiastic and dedicated, her products are selling out... and she can barely pay her rent.

Radio -- What Do I Do?

Chandra Bulucon, sole proprietor of Puppy Machine Productions, recorded a 45-minute phone conversation she had with a friend about her relationship to radio.

Chicago Hustles

Meet Floyd (not his real name), a self-described "cigarette hustler" and part of Chicago's thriving underground economy, where goods and services -- legal and illegal -- are sold under the radar.

The Paint Mixers

Wired with a low-fi tape recorder, performance artist Damali Ayo visited hardware stores and asked employees to mix paint to match different parts of her body.

Documenter and Documentee -- Part One

Documenting somebody else's life is one of the hardest challenges producers face in their work. Over an extended period of time relationships intensify, stories often change drastically, and the line between personal and too personal blurs easily.

  • 2007
  • 01:24:59

When Do You Feel Feminine?

After a teenager was killed near San Francisco for having a different biological gender from the one she expressed, some local middle-schoolers wanted to know why. What is gender, anyway?

Dia's Diary: My Mother

Dia Fallana is a young transgender woman living in a depressed area of Oakland, California. In this radio essay, she explains how her mother's anti-gay attitude kept her in the closet -- until she was forced to tell the truth.

Documenter and Documentee -- Part Two

Documenting somebody else's life is one of the hardest challenges producers face in their work. Over an extended period of time relationships intensify, stories often change drastically, and the line between personal and too personal blurs easily.

  • 2007
  • 01:26:45

Greenberger and Greenberg: On Story and Music

Beyond being atmospheric and scene setting, music can play an active role in audio pieces. David Greenberger has worked with a wide range of musicians and composers for his radio monologues, which are adapted from conversations he has with the elderly.

  • 2007
  • 01:29:10

One Way

A woman in a hurry seeks refuge from a storm and finds something in common with the motel attendant.

Oakland Scenes: Snapshots of a Community

Youth Radio producers Ise Lyfe, Gerald Ward II, and Bianca Yarborough chronicle the tense summer of 2002 in Oakland, California, when an alarming number of youth homicides weighed heavily on the community.

Open Outcry

Sound designer and multimedia artist Ben Rubin employs the cacophony of the New York Mercantile Exchange to create a musical piece commemorating the reopening of the World Financial Center's Winter Garden, which was closed after the events of September 11th.

When and How to Sell Out

It's hard enough to pitch a story to a public radio show -- are you willing to risk rejection from a whole new set of people? Daniel Sternberg talks about taking all of your talents, training, and neuroses and applying them to the world of podcasting.

  • 2007
  • 01:13:52

Ferlinghetti: San Francisco Locations

San Francisco luminary and famed poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti takes listeners on a freewheeling tour of his neighborhood haunts in San Francisco's Chinatown and North Beach.

Sources, Correspondents, Fixers: Making Radio With Bloggers

Millions of bloggers write every day about their own towns, industries, and lives. As a radio producer you can work with a nation -- a world – of storytellers to find out about everything from French politics to knitting habits in Iowa.

  • 2006
  • 01:17:02

Mei Mei, A Daughter's Song

Dmae Roberts tell two interwoven stories in this personal documentary: the frustration she feels not living up to her mother's ideal of a perfect Taiwanese daughter and the compassion she has for a mother who as a child suffered abuse, starvation, and the horrors of World War Two.

Dental Deja Vu

Producer Gwen Macsai was 31 when, for the second time in her life, she was subjected to that ubiquitous teenage torture device . . . the dental retainer.

A Sense of Place

Washington Post reporter Anne Hull shares her thoughts about how to capture an environment that reveals the world of a particular subject to your audience: by paying attention to detail and hopefully avoiding familiar cliches.

  • 2005
  • 01:19:08